By Larry Bartels, U.S. Naval Academy Track and Field Coach

At one point in my career, I was coaching at Northwood University. Northwood is a Division II, private business school in Midland, MI, in the Great Lakes Conference. I managed somehow to be named indoor coach of the year.  This was a miracle considering the obstacles that team had to over come.  At that time we did not have an indoor track and field facility. We did however have a synthetic rubber floor.  A basketball court was painted on it. We also had tennis courts on either end of the rubber floor. They consisted of a rough surface. There were two tennis courts on one end and one on the other of the basketball surface. We were still able to use this small surface to train. Our teams were mostly successful. It took some creativity in scheduling and training but we were happy with our results. Here’s what we did.

I cut tennis balls in half and would use them to outline the turns on either end of the track. The track itself was 175 meters around, and had about three 38-inch wide lanes. Fortunately we had a common finish. This was essential for a team with a coaching staff of one to be able to keep track of the runner’s times. We also put tape on the walls indicating where the start of each distance would be.
I would have the sprinters and hurdlers train down the center of the oval on days when the high jumpers and throwers were not practicing of course.

Plyometrics and flexibility as well as core work were a very important part of our training. With little space and little time available, we tried to emphasize the whole body training. I often gave thanks for a great swimming pool and no swim team.

Training in spikes was always a no-no…and throwing the indoor weight was limited, but we managed to throw into a net, two days a week.

Balancing time between the different events worked itself out quickly. The real juggling act was putting both men’s and women’s teams on the oval at the same time and keep them from running over each other. I came up with an alternate schedule for the distance runners and sprinters as well as mid-sprinters.

>> The distance runners would do interval work on Mondays, and Wednesdays. The distance runners would do distance or fartlek runs on these days.

>> The sprinters and hurdlers, 400m runner, etc. would train on a Tuesday, Thursday schedule.

>> On days when the distance runners were on the oval, the throwers and jumpers would train in the middle of the oval. Since we did not have a long jump pit, we used an old high jump pad, and we used the time line on the outside of the basketball court as our take off board. The outer border of the floor made a nice runway.

I knew that with such tight turns the times had to be slower than we would have liked. We just could not generate the kind of speed I wanted on such a small oval. It was like running on top of an egg some would say. So I emphasized quantity over quality. Our turnover would come from sprinting down the middle or the small straights. Getting outside for practice during the indoor season was touch and go…Michigan winters could be brutal.

What made all this work were the athletes. They knew this was all we had, they knew that there was no point in complaining, they saw it as a challenge, and they took great pride in beating teams that had far better facilities.

I write this to make a point.  I know that there are many high school, and, yes, college coaches out there who have little or no facilities. They have willing athletes and need a creative coach who does not lend to the complaining but finds ways to make it happen.  We have all heard stories of teams that trained in hallways, or other small areas. I hope this gives some of you an idea, something you can use to make your athletes better and give them a chance to compete.  In the end…that’s what it’s all about.

Good luck !!!

Larry Bartels is a member of the men's track and field coaching staff at the Naval Academy. For the five years prior to his arrival in Annapolis, he was the head coach of both the men's cross country and track & field programs at Division II Northwood University (Mich.). There, he garnered three Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) Coach-of-the-Year awards. He was named the conference's Outdoor Track Coach of the Year in 1997 and also received similar honors in cross country that fall. In 1998, Bartels received the GLIAC Indoor Track Coach-of-the-Year award.

Prior to coaching at Northwood, Bartels served as the head track & field coach at Division III Coast Guard where his dual-meet record was an outstanding 74-6. In 1995, he led the school to a 10th-place finish at the NCAA Division III Championships. Bartels also led the squad to the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference (ECAC) championship in 1994, and he received both ECAC and New England Coach-of-the-Year recognition at the end of the campaign.